Mona Lisa: Formal Analysis of an Iconic Renaissance Painting

This essay provides an analysis of Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, examining its historical and cultural context, formal elements, and enduring appeal. The essay delves into the painting's composition, use of color, shapes, and perspective, highlighting Da Vinci's mastery in creating an enigmatic and captivating portrait. It also discusses the cultural connotations of the painting, including its historical thefts and the various theories surrounding the subject's identity and the meaning behind her famous smile. The analysis concludes that Mona Lisa is a landmark artwork, appreciated for its symmetrical design, depth, and the seamless amalgamation of painting techniques, making it a historical and cultural icon. Desklib provides access to this and many other solved assignments for students.

Running head: MONA LISA AN ICONIC WORK OF ART
MONA LISA AN ICONIC WORK OF ART
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1MONA LISA AN ICONIC WORK OF ART
Mona Lisa is one of the iconic piece or art by the famous Italian Renaissance artist
Leonardo da Vinci. This is a half-lengthportraitpainting that has been descried as the most
visited, best known and most periodicpiece of art in the world.Mona Lisa is one of the most
valuable paintings that holds record for having the highest insurance valuation. Mona Lisais
currently the property of the French government. Many theories have been introduced reading
the womansitting on the painting as well as the painting itself. These have increased the price
and reputation of this particular painting my Leonardo da Vinci.This painting is currently
restored in Louvre Museum, France and considered to be most preciousassets that can never be
bought or sold. This analysis will be discussing the historical and cultural factors present in the
portraitthrough formalization of the painting.
In discussing the formalization of Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci, the size, color, shapes,
texture and direction can be discussed. This paintingis made of oil and wood. Theportraitof a
woman is gazing the viewer with a facial expression that has an enigmatic aura.Manyresearchers
around the world has been still studying the actual mystery about the famous smile of Mona
Lisa. The eyes of the subject are gazing towards something across the room.This ambiguous
expression in the face of the subject is the main reason why this painting has become an object of
growing fascination for more than centuries. The half figure composition monumentally, subtle
modelling forms and the atmospheric illusionism by Da Vinci are supportive of the mystic
ambience among Mona Lisa. The painter has used various kinds of lines in this famous painting.
The most prominent among these are the powerful curved lines in forming of the hair, face,
clothing. In the front corner of the pyramid, Da Vinci had placed the form of her folded hand.
In terms of shape,Da Vinci has used chiefly the organic shapes for the carves as well as
the jagged mountains in the background. The most dominating color used are grey and

2MONA LISA AN ICONIC WORK OF ART
brownwhich are the earthy tones for conveying the natural feeling. More importantly, these
colorsneither specifically denote sadness or happiness. The shading tone by the painteris quite
detailed in the ways he had painted the face of Mona Lisa (Garrard). The lighting was perfectly
usedin to make her face, neck and breast to be more prominent and glow by contrasting the color
of the backdrop. The dark and light tone of color has been managed perfectly to detail the
creation of her mouth that bears a very specific shading on the corner of her lips to capture the
mysterious smile. Perspective plays an important part in the work of Leonardoda Vinci. Like all
other paintings, he has created a perfect distance between the background and differentiated the
main subject of the portrait. The background in seen as further back from the main figure of the
painting.
The main direction of the painting is curved to convey the feeling of tenderness of the
woman figure which is in the center of the painting. The texture of the portrait of Mona Lisa is
actually cracked with rough surface but what makes the portrait more attractive is its smoothness
of the skin of the figure and roughness of the background (Soranzo, Danyeko andZavagno). The
painter in this case has used the similar technique used in the image of seated Madonna. This
painting was very popular at that time and used for creating any type of seated female figures. Da
Vinci used some modification of this particular techniquethrough visual impressionto create a
perfect distance between the observers and the seated woman in the painting.This painting
appears alive to an unusual extent that the painterhas achieved by his method of avoiding usage
of outlines.
The culturalconnotation of this portrait has a long andeventful history, this painting has
been theft for several times and some suspect this theft is done by a famous painter. There are
several versions of this portrait that are attempted by different painters but each had different

3MONA LISA AN ICONIC WORK OF ART
qualities to share. During the world war, this painting was saved from destruction and the
theorists allow this idea that this theft is somehow related to the process of safekeeping it from
the wrath of war.The title of this painting comes from the description of Giorgio Vasari, a
Renaissance art historian who has referred the painting to be theportrait of Mona Lisa, the wife
of a famous Italian silk merchantFrancesco del Giocondo. Another theory refers to that Mon Lisa
is the mother of Leonardo, Catrina. According to the scholars like Sigmund Freud, the
mysterious smile of Mona Lisa has emerged perhaps from the unconscious memory of smile of
Catrina (Carbon and Hesslinge). According to the historians this paintinghas cultural and
religious connotationsas the publication time of this portraitof the early renaissance when the
religious paintings were very common. This painting has a larger influence in the culture of the
western civilization. The clothing of the figure represents the Florentine fashion of the time that
perfectly matches the personality of the subject, physical condition and the social status. After
the painting of Mona Lisa was found it started a new fashion trend in all over the western world.
The smile is the perfect example of Gioconda which is thevisual representation of the idea of
happiness.This captures the techniques of the painter to represent the style of painting of the
time.
Therefore, it can be concluded that the aesthetic appreciation of Mona Lisa ahs made it a
historical as well as cultural icon. This portraitis the perfect amalgamation of painting techniques
of the painter as well as farsightedness of the painter. The depth has been seen in both the subject
display, foreground, texture and the background. The symmetrical design of the painting of
Mona Lisa has come o be appreciatedas the landmark art work.

4MONA LISA AN ICONIC WORK OF ART
References:
Carbon, Claus-Christian, and Vera M. Hesslinger. "Restoring depth to Leonardo's Mona
Lisa." American Scientist 103.6 (2015): 404.
Garrard, Mary D. "Leonardo da Vinci: female portraits, female nature." The Expanding
Discourse. Routledge, 2018. 58-85.
Soranzo, Alessandro, Olga Danyeko, and Daniele Zavagno. "Mona Lisa's smiles in Leonardo's
drawings." Art and Perception 5.5 (2017): 410.